The company's headquarters was inCalabasas, California. Malibu was initiallypublisher of record forImage Comics from 1992 to 1993. The company's other imprints includedAdventure,Aircel andEternity. Malibu also owned a small software development company that designed video games in the early to mid-1990s calledMalibu Interactive.
In 1987, after Rosenberg's behind-the-scenes roles were revealed, he discontinued most of the other small publishers, merging some with Malibu and retaining Eternity Comics as a Malibu brand. At this point, Chris Ulm joined Malibu as editor-in-chief.[6]
From that point forward, theMalibu brand was used for superhero titles; whileEternity was used for the magazine line and also foranime-inspired titles likeRobotech;Adventure was used for Malibu's licensed titles, such asPlanet of the Apes andAlien Nation; andAircel was used forBarry Blair's comics and Malibu'sadult line.
In 1998, the company also acquired the character Shuriken (a character that was self-published from 1985–1988 byVictory Productions) from its creator Reggie Byers.[9][10] Shuriken was published in threelimited series and twoone-shots by Malibu; later the character was introduced in theUltraverse imprint.[11]
By this time, the company was publishing a combination of new series and licensed properties. Later, after a legal battle with the creators, Malibu created a shared universe called Shattered Earth.[12]
In 1992, heroes fromCentaur Publications (aGolden Age publisher whose properties fell into thepublic domain) were revived in the form of theProtectors, consisting ofAirman,Amazing-Man, Aura, Arc,Arrow, Ferret, Man of War and Mighty Man, among others. Several of these characters had short-lived spin-off titles of their own. The Centaur heroes and other characters from Adventure (Miss Fury andRocket Ranger), and Eternity (Dinosaurs for Hire,Ex-Mutants) plus Dead Clown and Widowmaker, were put together in one Universe to form theGenesis line. This line, however, had a short lifespan.
In early 1992, Malibu served aspublisher of record for the first comics fromImage Comics, making the upstart creator-run publisher members of the Malibu Graphics Publishing Group,[13] and giving Image access to thedistribution channels.[14] This move led to Malibu obtaining almost ten percent of the American comics market share,[15] temporarily moving ahead of industry giantDC Comics.[16]
By the beginning of 1993, Image's financial situation was secure enough to publish its titles independently, and it left Malibu.[17]
In late 1992, seeking to capitalize on the growingvideo game market, Malibu merged with video game developerAcme Interactive to formMalibu Comics Entertainment, Inc., withMalibu Interactive acting as a subsidiary.[18][19][20]
TheUltraverse line was launched in June 1993[21] during the "boom" of the early 1990s, roughly concurrent with the debut of publishers such asImage andValiant, and new superhero lines fromDC andDark Horse (Milestone andComics' Greatest World, respectively). The line was in part intended to fill the gap left by Image's independence.
Establishing itself as the first company to use digital coloring for all its titles,[22] Malibu boasted improved production values over traditional comics, including higher-quality paper, and a roster of talented and respected writers and artists. Emphasizing the tightcontinuity between the various series in the Ultraverse line, Malibu made extensive use ofcrossovers, in which a story that began in one series would be continued in the next-shipping issue of another series. Various promotions for special editions or limited-print stories followed. The Ultraverse line came to dominate Malibu's catalog.
TheBravura imprint, launched in January 1994, was Malibu'screator-owned imprint. Founding members of the Bravura group wereDan Brereton (Nocturnals),Howard Chaykin (Power & Glory),Steven D. Grant &Gil Kane (Edge),Dan Jurgens (Deuce),Walt Simonson (Star Slammers), andJim Starlin (Breed,Dreadstar). The group was represented by attorney Harris M. Miller II.[23] The "Bravura Gold Stamp Program" encouraged readers to collect stickers from each issue ofBreed,Power & Glory,Edge,Dreadstar, andStar Slammers to qualify for various offers, including "the rare"Bravura #0!"[24]
Malibu launched theRock-It Comix imprint for rock music comics in early 1994. Malibu worked with the management firm Gold Mountain Entertainment in dealing with the musicians, while International Strategic Marketing distributed the line to comic book shops, music outlets, and newsstands.[1]
By early 1994, Malibu Comics Entertainment had large numbers of employees in various divisions, including editorial, design, the art department, coloring,imagesetting, marketing, film, finance, and administration.[25]
As sales declined industry-wide in the mid-1990s, Malibu canceled lower-selling series.[26] But the company's biggest problem was its game division—started in an attempt to break into thevideo game market—which cost Malibu more than $200,000 a month.[27] Nonetheless, the company's assets were still seen as attractive enough to garner interest fromDC Comics in the spring of 1994.[28] In addition, Rosenberg and Malibu signed with theWilliam Morris Agency.[29]
Because Malibu had sufficientmarket share that an acquisition from DC would make the latter surpass Marvel's market share,[28] Marvel decided to purchase Malibu itself to prevent this from happening: on November 3, 1994, Malibu was purchased byMarvel Comics.[30][31][32][33]
To slow down rumors that the Ultraverse titles would be canceled as soon as the deal closed, Malibu claimed that Marvel wanted Malibu because of its digital coloring system.[34] Meanwhile, in the middle of the following year, 1995, Malibu standard-bearers Mason and Ulm left the company.[35] Around the same, time in May–October 1995 (during the "Black September" event)[22] Marvel re-launched a handful of the more popular Ultraverse titles as well as a number ofcrossovers with Marvel characters. The "volume 2" series each started with "#∞ (infinity)" issues — these were, however, canceled a short time later. With that, Marvel canceled the entire Ultraverse line. (Within theMarvel Comics multiverse, the Genesis Universe is designated asEarth-1136 and the Ultraverse asEarth-93060.)[36]
Very little Malibu content was published after 1996.
In June 2005, when asked byNewsarama whether Marvel had any plans to revive the Ultraverse, Marvel editor-in-chiefJoe Quesada replied that:
Let's just say that I wanted to bring these characters back in a very big way, but the way that the deal was initially structured, it's next to impossible to go back and publish these books.There are rumors out there that it has to do with a certain percentage of sales that has to be doled out to the creative teams. While this is a logistical nightmare because of the way the initial deal was structured, it's not the reason why we have chosen not to go near these characters, there is a bigger one, but I really don't feel like it's my place to make that dirty laundry public.[37]
In May 2012,Steve Englehart suggested in a podcast interview that the reason Marvel will not presently publish the Ultraverse characters is because five percent of the profits from those books would have to go to the Malibu creators who were still alive.[38] Marvel EditorTom Brevoort later denied that the five percent was what was holding Marvel back, but was unable to give a real explanation due to anon-disclosure agreement.[39]
It has been speculated that Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's ongoing producer deal for all Malibu properties (and his alleged personal troubles) is another possible factor in why the Ultraverse has never been revived.[28][40][41][42]
Edge bySteven Grant andGil Kane (3 issues,unfinished, 1994–1995;iBooks released a hardback collection of the complete first series in 2004 under the titleThe Last Heroes[44])
The Man Called A-X byMarv Wolfman (6 issues, 1994–1995)
^ab"Distributor Finances Five Publishers".The Comics Journal. No. 115. April 1987. pp. 12–13.About Rosenberg and Eternity Comics, Imperial Comics, Amazing, Malibu, and Wonder Color Comics.
^"Chris Ulm entry".Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999. RetrievedMarch 15, 2023.
^"Eternity Merges with Aircel".The Comics Journal. No. 125. October 1988. p. 19.
^"Malibu Acquires Adventure".The Comics Journal. No. 127. February 1989. p. 21.
^The Masked Man (December 14, 2016)."SHURIKEN!". aintitcool.com/.
^"Bye Bye Marvel; Here Comes Image: Portacio, Claremont, Liefeld, Jim Lee Join McFarlane's New Imprint at Malibu".The Comics Journal. No. 148. February 1992. pp. 11–12.
^"NewsWatch: Malibu Commands 9.73% Market Share".The Comics Journal. No. 151. July 1992. p. 21.
^"Malibu Moves Ahead of DC in Comics Market".The Comics Journal=. No. 152. August 1992. pp. 7–8.
^"Image Leaves Malibu, Becomes Own Publisher".The Comics Journal. No. 155. January 1993. p. 22.
^"Malibu to Produce Video Games: Comic publisher merges with video game developer Acme Interactive". Newswatch.The Comics Journal. No. 153. October 1992. p. 19.
^abcTom Mason, quoted inMacDonald, Heidi (Nov 16, 2013)."Quote of the day: get in the time machine".The Beat.: "Marvel bought Malibu for only one reason: to keep it away from DC which had been negotiating to buy the company since April/May 1994."
^"Malibu Signs with William Morris Agency".The Comics Journal. No. 170. August 1994. p. 40.
^Reynolds, Eric (December 1994). "The Rumors are True: Marvel Buys Malibu".The Comics Journal. No. 173. pp. 29–33.
